Alphabet of a Teenager – The entire PSHE curriculum in one sitting

Michael nervously opens his GCSE results. He remembers everything that’s happened up until this very moment. What did he feel like on the day that he first arrived at School? What went through his head when he was offered a cigarette by one of his peers? What did his Mum and Dad think when he did no revision for his exams? Why now, because of what he’s experienced, does racism make his blood boil furiously?

Has he done enough to claw his way back up and achieve exam results that he can be proud of? In this 50 minute play, packed full of stories and teenage angst and adventure, find out how it is possible to cover the entire PSHE curriculum in less than an hour.

The curriculum that we adhere to is the non statutory programme, as set out by the Department of Education. This includes coverage in the production of the following topics:

Drugs and Alcohol Education

Emotional Health and well-being

Sex and relationship education

Nutrition and physical activity

Personal finance

Safety

Careers education

Work-related learning

The production gives a broad overview of the curriculum and our post show workshop programme allows each of these elements to be explored in far greater depth and instigates debate of sensitive subject matter amongst the students.

How does it do this?

The story is told by one single actor and follows his journey through Secondary education right the way through from his first day in Year 7, to receiving his GCSE results in Year 11. Told through his eyes, this piece is not only interactive but will also appeal to students because the story is told to them at their level, making the content easy to relate to.

The notion that students will be able to say ‘I know how that feels’ or ‘Yes, something similar happened to me’ helps build the ethos of the entire production. We want students to relate to the material and feel like they are not alone in the trials and tribulations that they are facing.

Something like choosing the subjects that are right for you at GCSE and using your personal identity blue print to make these subject and career choices is incredibly important but not necessarily easy for students to access. The play light heartedly shows them the journey across the misty fields towards their goals and ambitions and if they’ll let it, may even help to shape their destiny.

Teachers’ resources:

As with all of our productions, full post show support is offered with our Teachers’ resource pack. This is full of information about the production itself, including a full copy of the script. It also contains several lesson plans including worksheets to develop the themes within the play further.

From September there will be an audio version available to download online. This will be made available to staff in the school and parents at home too, should they wish to listen to an audio version of the play. Part of our pre-performance check contains a letter that you can distribute to parents, informing them of this resource. There will be a small charge to download this.